Arizona: Land of Foreclosures, Profligate Peccaries, and Empty Parks

Here we are in Sun City West, in suburban Phoenix, Arizona, listening to weather reports warning us about four to six feet of snow in Flagstaff and surrounding mountains, the closing of Interstate 17 from Flagstaff to just north of Phoenix because of ice, and flash floods in the middle of Mesa. The Phoenix metro area got four inches of rain yesterday, which happens to be about an inch more than it received all last year. We may get at least two more inches tonight and tomorrow.

We left home to get sunny warmth, not to get snowdrifts and floods. Oh well, it’s supposed to be great next week. We are going to visit Bisbee again next week, that old mining town southeast of Tucson.

On top of Mother Nature having a fit, Arizonians are going through tough times. One would think red staters would take better care of themselves. They are having half-price sales on residential and commercial real estate, with rich speculators running from foreclosure auction to auction waving fistfuls of cash, hoping to add to their nest-vault. One ad featured the auction of 500 foreclosed homes yesterday. I hope some normal homebuyer got a deal out of the mess.

One of the largest RV and motorhome dealers in the country ran a TV ad yesterday offering new and used motorhomes and RVs at 50 percent off. He has to be really taking a bath on million-dollar motorhomes but I suppose he has bank loans to pay.

Will Republicans Ever Want to Pay for Anything?

Traveling around metro Phoenix through such ghettos as Scottsdale and all the “Sun Cities,” one could assume there is some money left in Arizona. Multi-million dollar homes trying to impress each other among the country clubs and “estates” hidden by tall gates are evidence there is some excess money here. A Republican governor and Republican legislature are trying to figure out what size holes in the safety net they want to make.

Governor Jan Brewer presented her budget to the legislature a week ago. The Arizona Republic described the cuts as “brutal.”  Rather significant for a Republican newspaper. Among the many cuts, Brewer’s budget cuts all state employees’ salaries by 5 percent, eliminates all state support for all-day kindergarten, eliminates day-care assistance for 10,000 children of low-income working parents, ends cash assistance for 10,000 more families, eliminates KidsCare, a health insurance program which covers 47,000 children, and cuts 310,500 people out of health coverage by Arizona’s Medicaid agency. Does this sound like Minnesota and Pawlenty?

Brewer also wants to cut the entire State Department of Juvenile Corrections budget and foist the programs off on Arizona counties.  Naturally the county governments are screaming bloody murder. It’s great sport to watch Republicans scream at each other about somebody else’s money.

To compound the revenue problem facing Arizona, the state is 50th in retaining jobs and the rate of per capita personal income is rapidly declining. Red Staters hate income and property taxes, therefore these Arizona taxes are among the lowest in the nation. The Arizona Legislature is dominated by the “no-new-taxes” crowd. Brewer says the only way to balance the budget with its $1.4 billion deficit is to increase the sales tax rate by one percent. Although rich Arizonians got huge tax cuts over a decade ago they don’t want to raise income taxes even to pay for vital social programs.

Of the 10 most regressive states in terms of taxes, Arizona ranks fourth. Regressive taxation means that the poor and middle class pay the most taxes as a percentage of their income while the rich pay the least amount in taxes as a percentage of income. That’s why the rich always favor an increase in sales taxes rather than income or property taxes.

While I am writing this I’m listening to a Goldwater conservative who believes that government is always the problem and not the solution, recommending that state parks and prisons be sold and turned over to private enterprise.

Arizona May Close 21—or All—State Parks

In a special session last month, the Arizona Legislature approved an $8.1 million cut in the state parks budget. That was on top of $34 million in cuts in park programs made last year. Faced with these big cuts, the Arizona State Parks Board voted to close 21 of their 30 state parks, with most of them to close by June 1. Law enforcement agencies said they couldn’t afford to patrol the parks to prevent vandalism either.

Governor Brewer told the parks board that it may become necessary for the state to close all parks, becoming the first state in the nation to do so. Isn’t it funny that the governor didn’t mention golf courses in her budget cuts, even if Arizona has 420 public and private golf courses? Some legislators are advocating a $9 increase in vehicle fees for entrance to parks. Increases for parking in golf course lots were not mentioned.  Over 2.2 million people visited Arizona state parks last year.

Arizona prisons, welcoming over 100 new clients per month, have been neglected in good and bad times. The entire world has probably heard about Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County who dresses his male inmates in pink and feeds then baloney sandwiches three times a day. He is facing about a dozen lawsuits for his adventures in picking up “illegals.”

But only Arizona residents generally know that over 31,000 adult inmates and about 550 juveniles are locked up in cells and prisons that are deteriorating and dangerous. It’s fascinating just to read of the deficiencies in fire alarm systems that have been allowed to become obsolete, broken, or, in some cases, have never been installed. Liability experts keep telling the legislature that the state is facing the loss of millions of dollars in lawsuits if inmates lose their lives in fires. The legislature still refuses to fund bringing the alarm systems up to code.

It’s amazing to read the list of deficiencies by prison: Yuma has 2,240 inmates, has 593 of 731 smoke detectors and 34 of 35 fire alarms that don’t work; Buckeye has 5,205 inmates, has 1,824 of 3,269 smoke detectors and 52 of 62 fire alarms that do not work, plus it is lacking 21 fire alarms; Florence has 5,225 inmates, has 4,363 of 4,391 (!!) of smoke detectors and 6 of 46 fire alarms that do not work, plus it is lacking 13 fire alarms. The other seven prisons in the Arizona system are just as bad. Department of Corrections administrators have been trying to get the legislature to act for 20 years on these deficiencies.  During the good years of the Clinton ‘90s, the legislature even cut the fire marshall’s staff so the facilities couldn’t be inspected once a year. Now some of them have not been officially inspected for five years. Every Arizona prison is forced to have 24-hour fire watches to lower the liability of the system.

My point is, how can a state legislature ignore its essential duties, such as keeping parks open and facilities safe? What is in our pysche? California and Arizona are somewhat alike in governance. Both states require a two-thirds vote to increase taxes, allowing a small group of tax-haters to control the agenda. Before Ronald Reagan, California had the highest rated K-12 and university educational system in the nation–and California wasn’t broke. In 30 years of a crazy, illogical tax system, the lack of money has driven that educational system to 49th in the nation. A $4 million home in California is “valued” to have less property tax than a $300,000 home in Omaha. That doesn’t make any sense. Arizona is close to having the same mess.

How Much Is Enough?

When is “enough” actually enough?  Minnesotans are familiar with Denny Hecker, the car dealer extraordinaire who owes a lot of people over $800 million at first count. Besides bankruptcy, poor Denny is going through a nasty divorce. It evidently started when his wife asked him to go the garage of their multi-million dollar Crosslake home and get some chicken from a freezer. When he left the house portion she immediately locked it and then waved a handgun at Denny. Mrs. Hecker persuaded him not to re-enter the house. His kids, according to a police report, were last seen giving him the finger from an upstairs window. I guess some families that prey together cannot stay together.

Some of Denny’s “stuff” will be auctioned off later this summer to pay off some of his creditors, such as his credit card at Nieman-Marcus for $198,000. Gone will be the $200,000 Bentley limo, a $60,000 fur coat the authorities snatched off the back of a Hecker girl friend, two German shepherds supposedly worth $30,000 each (I would love to hear his attorney tell the judge what makes a $30,000 dog), six Harley-Davidson motorcycles, nine Polaris snowmobiles, two pontoon boats, two Vespa scooters, four Bombardier jetskis and one Kawasaki Jet Ski, numerous golf carts, golf bags, and clubs; many guns, lawn mowers and hundreds of other items. Isn’t this some form of obsessive-compulsive disease?

I filed former General Electric CEO Jack Welch’s employment contract years ago because I thought it revealed a lot about the great business guru who was the model for other business CEOs. He saved GE lots of money when he was hired because he sold off and closed plants and fired 25,000 workers. His annual salaries were always in the millions but his retirement contract was a real eye-opener. His retirement pay was worth many millions. He had free personal use of a GE 737 jet and helicopter for his lifetime. He had paid-for-life floor level tickets for the New York Knicks and box seats for the Yankees and the Red Sox, tickets for life to the Metropolitan Opera, exclusive use of a company Manhattan apartment (including fresh flowers daily), all dry-cleaning, the best Internet service, tips for his doormen, home security systems for four other residences he owned, and hundreds of other perks and pleasantries. He even insisted on having GE pay for all his postage stamps.

All of these deals came to light in divorce court when Jack’s wife decided to dump him after he was caught with another woman. She wanted her share after putting up with Jack. After all the secrets were out, GE shareholders forced Jack to drop some of the excessive provisions of his retirement contract.

Little and Big Pigs Operating in the Free Market

Pigs were the subject in the current issue of Animal Behavior. They may rank as high as dolphins, apes, chimps, and other species (elephants are pretty smart, too) that have passed the “mirror recognition test,” a marker for self-awareness and animal intelligence. (If animals can recognize themselves in a mirror the animal behaviorists classify them as intelligent.) 

Researchers also have found that pigs are absolutely brilliant at remembering where food is available and how much is there. They are still trying to figure out how Pig B learns instantly to follow Pig A if Pig A shows signs of knowing where the chow is. They also know that Pig A will try to deceive Pig B and will give him false leads to get him off the track.  After all, Pig A wants to “hog” the food. Perhaps we should name these hogs Hecker and Welch instead of A and B.

An international team of biologists has completed the pig genome, the complete genetic instructions for making a Duroc or Berkshire pig. We raised Berkshires. They are pretty smart animals about the food chain. By the way, the pig genome “compares favorably with the human genome,” according to the researchers. In fact, pig hearts are very much like our hearts, they react to drugs as we do, they have similar teeth, and their habits are much like ours.

Dr. Lawrence Shook, a biologist, says: “I look at the pig as a great animal model for human lifestyle diseases. Pigs like to lie around, they like to drink. If given the chance, they’ll smoke and watch TV.”  I wonder if the pigs look at Hecker, Welch, and Arizona politicians and think they are good human role models.

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